ontario construction

Ask Bruce Karn what is keeping him busy these days and the senior legal counsel at construction giant EllisDon will say it is the pending changes to Ontario’s Construction Lien Act.

The Ontario government is significantly overhauling the 35-year-old legislation in two phases, he notes. The first phase is modernizing the legislation, which comes into effect on July 1. The second and more significant reform, however, will take place in October 2019.

Now that the Government of Canada has retaliated against unfair U.S. tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum, the Canadian Coalition for Construction Steel is urging the Government to act cautiously before taking further action, including safeguards, which could severely disrupt the construction industry in Canada.

The new Oxford County Waste Management and Education Centre in Ontario is an example of sustainable construction and renewable energy generation. It is anticipated the building will receive Zero Net Energy certification from the New Buildings Institute (NBI) after one year of monitoring.

Measures to protect the Canadian and American steel markets from cheap foreign steel may hurt the Canadian construction industry and raise the cost of home building, say two representatives from the Canadian steel construction industry.

As Nova Chemicals gears up for $2-billion in construction in St. Clair Township, the president of the Sarnia-Lambton Building and Construction Trades Council says its members are ready to supply the skilled workforce the project needs.

Nova has begun preparing the site of a new polyethylene plant to be built over the next three years on Rokeby Line, next to its Corunna plant where work is also planned to double its production.

On July 1, 2018, the first round of amendments to the Ontario Construction Lien Act – including its new name, the Construction Act – will come into force.

Importantly, this first set of amendments does not include the two most substantial and perhaps, controversial, changes to the Act: (1) the introduction of a prompt payment scheme, and (2) the creation of a mandatory adjudication system for certain disputes. These changes, among others, will not come into force until October 1, 2019.

This post is meant to refresh readers on the amendments coming into force next month on July 1st. Separate posts will follow that will provide practical advice for owners, general contractors, and subcontractors on how to prepare for the new prompt payment and mandatory adjudication regimes before they come into force next year.

Ontario’s Construction Lien Amendment Act, 2017 was passed in December 2017, but the changes will be rolled out later this year and during 2019 as the various elements of the act are proclaimed. The overhaul of Ontario’s construction regulatory framework includes prompt payment rules. Even though the legislation applies only to Ontario, the implementation of prompt payment rules is expected to be closely watched by other jurisdictions across Canada.

Recently announced funding for Ontario’s Mass Timber Program will lay the foundational blocks for innovative, new building techniques using wood, according to Ontario Wood WORKS!, the provincial voice of wood construction advocacy.

Marianne Berube, the organization’s executive director, noted that, while Natural Resources Canada has dallied in grants for mass timber developments, this is the first time the province has offered assistance for mass timber demonstration projects.

“It’s something new,” she said. “It’s innovation; it’s pushing the limits, and that’s what this funding’s for.”

As Toronto’s condo market booms, signs are emerging that a stressed industry is facing rising costs and tax burdens that may mean an even grimmer outlook for buyers.

Observers are still sifting through the wreckage of the Toronto area’s latest project cancellation – a sold-out Vaughan project that dumped 1,100 would-be buyers back into the market earlier this month. That collapse is by some counts the 11th residential building project to be cancelled in the last year, and some are pointing to a rapid escalation in builder costs as the primary culprit.